Narrative:

On approach into pgv washington center usually has to leave you at a fairly high altitude until getting very close to the airport resulting in a rapid descent and high workload environment getting configured for the ILS approach in a very short time. I was pilot monitoring and the first officer was the pilot flying. We got established on the localizer when the first officer said he thought we were getting a false glide slope signal. I was busy trying to get the aqe (alwood) NDB final approach fix to work when he said this. It appeared as if the glide slope signal was intermittent and at about that time the glide slope went full scale down. Having the approach mode armed in the flight guidance computer the autopilot tried to capture the intermittent signal and commanded what I believe to be a 10 degree pitch down and 1;500 FPM descent. The egpws annunciated 'sink rate' at which point I commanded the first officer to perform a go around. We were established on the localizer at 2;000 feet which did not give us much reaction time.on the go around there is a NOTAM directing you to hold over the aqe NDB because the iso VOR is out of service for the published holding procedure. Having been unable to receive aqe earlier I notified washington center of the situation and they provided us radar vectors. After determining that everything seemed to be working again they offered us the option of trying the approach again and verifying for us with their radar that we were over the aqe final approach fix when and where we were supposed to be. As a crew we decided it was acceptable to try the approach one more time and divert to our alternate if the approach signal failed again.the approach was successful. At the gate the station personnel told us that several planes had gone around that day for the very same reason. This information would have been nice to know on the ground before departing or at the very least from washington center before we conducted the approach.the glide slope signal was intermittent causing the autopilot to capture the glide slope as it failed from full scale up to full scale down. As a crew we saw this happen while the egpws warned us of the sink rate and a go around was performed. Antiquated equipment on the ground at an uncontrolled airport failed at one of the most dangerous phases of flight for us.after we landed I notified dispatch of the situation and requested a takeoff alternate for our return leg. Once airborne on the way back I also further explained to washington center what we experienced.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain experienced a sink rate warning when the glideslope failed during ILS approach to PGV. A go-around was initiated and the second approach attempt was successful.

Narrative: On approach into PGV Washington Center usually has to leave you at a fairly high altitude until getting very close to the airport resulting in a rapid descent and high workload environment getting configured for the ILS approach in a very short time. I was pilot monitoring and the First Officer was the pilot flying. We got established on the localizer when the First Officer said he thought we were getting a false glide slope signal. I was busy trying to get the AQE (Alwood) NDB final approach fix to work when he said this. It appeared as if the glide slope signal was intermittent and at about that time the glide slope went full scale down. Having the approach mode armed in the flight guidance computer the autopilot tried to capture the intermittent signal and commanded what I believe to be a 10 degree pitch down and 1;500 FPM descent. The EGPWS annunciated 'SINK RATE' at which point I commanded the First Officer to perform a go around. We were established on the localizer at 2;000 feet which did not give us much reaction time.On the go around there is a NOTAM directing you to hold over the AQE NDB because the ISO VOR is out of service for the published holding procedure. Having been unable to receive AQE earlier I notified Washington Center of the situation and they provided us radar vectors. After determining that everything seemed to be working again they offered us the option of trying the approach again and verifying for us with their radar that we were over the AQE final approach fix when and where we were supposed to be. As a crew we decided it was acceptable to try the approach one more time and divert to our alternate if the approach signal failed again.The approach was successful. At the gate the station personnel told us that several planes had gone around that day for the very same reason. This information would have been nice to know on the ground before departing or at the very least from Washington Center before we conducted the approach.The glide slope signal was intermittent causing the autopilot to capture the glide slope as it failed from full scale up to full scale down. As a crew we saw this happen while the EGPWS warned us of the sink rate and a go around was performed. Antiquated equipment on the ground at an uncontrolled airport failed at one of the most dangerous phases of flight for us.After we landed I notified dispatch of the situation and requested a takeoff alternate for our return leg. Once airborne on the way back I also further explained to Washington Center what we experienced.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.